Equity
by DermatologistTested
Summary: Two thousand lien for a vision of the one Weiss Schnee, heir to the Schnee Dust Company with its properties and fortune, was going to spend the rest of her life with. A lot of things seem to be in her way, but the biggest one is herself.
1. Weiss Schnee

"We are now on our final approach to Vale International Airport. Estimated time of arrival is fifteen minutes."

Weiss Schnee looked up at the ceiling of the aircraft, at nothing in particular, her attention pulled from her absentminded thumbing through her Scroll. Barely ten minutes ago, she had uploaded a snapshot she had taken of the skies of Vale with the caption "Starting a new chapter of my life" and she had gotten over four-hundred likes and one-hundred and thirty-two comments.

Not that she would bother responding to any of them. Not that those four-hundred likers really cared. Not that those one-hundred and thirty-two commenters really meant what they said.

She just liked numbers and at the end of the day, that's all they really were. Numbers.

Her crystal blue eyes went back to her Scroll. What else was there to do but this? She had seen every nook and cranny of the Schnee private jet, marveled at her reflection on the spotless silver surfaces, felt the cool metal against her skin. No, she would rather stare at photographs of beaches, of sunsets and first-class restaurants. She could tell which one was a subtle marketing stunt and which photo was real or almost real.

Without thinking, she clicked on the "Search" option, lithe fingers hovering over her Scroll's keypad. Before her thumb could make contact with the device, she stopped herself and stared out the window, out into the tiny city below, her new home.

She had other things to worry about. She had to settle in, to survey her new school, to get a handle in the development of the new Schnee Dust Company branch here in Vale. She had no time to waste on trying to find her. Weiss knew she was here in Vale. It won't be long until the two of them would bump into each other anyway.

She just had to be patient.

Weiss leaned back against the plush seat and closed her eyes for a moment. Every single time she thought about the vision she had seen all those months ago, she felt excitement, thrill, impatience, followed by the overwhelming feeling of sadness and regret. There was no telling what other things that Madame Leona character had done in her life, but she was wrongfully incarcerated and there was nothing she could do about it.

" _Madame Leona has already seen it, child."_

She must have also seen what would happen after their meeting, hence her reluctance to do what she was famous for: to see into the future, to see the eyes of the person anyone would spend the rest of their lives with. Most of all, she would know when and where they would meet.

But Weiss wasn't paying much attention to the time and date of their meeting. She was too anxious to check her watch. All she could remember was that it was in front of a shabby pink building called Johnson Hall, the sun was about to set, enveloping the entire scene in a blanket of warm gold.

Weiss would have to find out if tomorrow was the day. She would stand in front of the building and wait. She had been waiting for months. What's another twenty-four hours?

She picked up her Scroll and resumed her absentminded thumbing, double-tapping if she saw something that mildly interested her, but mostly just sparing a quick glance at whatever cheesy image people posted for all to see. Still, there was the lingering afterthought that it might not hurt to try and find out if she had a social media account, to find out what kind of pictures she'd be putting up, what kind of life she leads, what kind of person she is without her.

"Miss Schnee," a jovial voice said from behind her followed by a soft sneeze, "Excuse me, is there anything you'd like before landing?"

Scroll still held up to her face, Weiss turned to see Klein Sieben, cheeks tinged red from the smile he flashed at her. She couldn't remember the last time that she had been this happy to see anybody in her life.

"No." she smiled at him, "Thank you, Klein."

Klein had been working for the Schnee family for as long as she could remember; a loyal servant since before her younger brother was even born. He was responsible for attending to the wants and needs of the Schnee daughters, managing their schedules, their education, and just about everything in their lives. But Klein Sieben was more than just another servant in their household. He practically raised her and her sister, Winter. He was family.

He looked at her for a moment, his moustache twitched and his eyebrows furrowed in suspicion. He did practically raise her, so he knew that something was troubling her even before she figured it out for herself.

"I do believe," his voice was low, but Weiss could hear him clearly over the sound of the engine, "that she is here In Vale."

Weiss double-tapped on the image of an oil magnate's daughter relaxing by the pool before she put her Scroll away. She wondered which color eyes she would see if she turned around, so she opted to stare outside the window again.

"This is your captain speaking," a voice from the aircraft's sound system cut through her silence, "for your safety and comfort, please remain seated with your seatbelt…"

"You better sit down, Klein." Weiss announced, her hand brushing against the cool metal around her waist.

He opened his mouth to say something; Weiss knew that he would, but she was glad that he had said nothing and sat himself down on the chair behind her. Klein always knew what to say, but Weiss was more grateful that he knew when to say something and when to keep quiet.

Her hands gripped the armrest as the aircraft began its descent onto the runway. It wasn't as if she was scared of landing. The Schnee family only employs the best and brightest. No, it was the unease building inside of her. She was getting so close into the new chapter of her life that she mentioned on her uploaded image earlier. A new chapter that both terrified and thrilled her.

Though it was impossible to leave her past troubles behind in Atlas, she should have at least stowed them away in the deepest recesses of her thoughts. There was nothing to worry about. She was Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee family fortune and the future CEO of Schnee Dust Company – Vale Office.

And she was going to meet the love of her life soon enough.

It won't be long until she would be certain that she wouldn't have to walk this path alone, that she would have somebody to lean on when the business gets rough, the days would grow longer and there wouldn't be enough of the night to sleep in.

And oh how she longed for a soft, warm bed right now.

Despite the private jet, the flight from Atlas to Vale had taken over nine hours. It saved her two hours if she had taken a commercial airline. Not that she would. A Schnee always travels in comfort and style.

Weiss always hated the landing, when the air pressure would change and the force that came when the landing gears made contact with the runway. Finally, the aircraft taxied into a private terminal, closed off from the public so that she may be able to retreat into the waiting car that would take her to her new apartment in the city.

She hadn't been to Vale since she was a younger and even then she disliked the crowded streets, the bustling passersby and the filthy streets. It boasted being a much more advanced city, a progressive one, but that didn't mean the public cleanliness should recede back to its primitive stages.

She had Klein make sure that her new home was far from the unhygienic residents of Vale. She understood that those types of people were far too busy to clean up after themselves, understood more that they didn't have the means to **pay** someone to clean up for them.

That was how the world is. Some people were skilled at growing their meager incomes until it became a multi-billion lien business empire while others did not know how to manage their finances at all. People should be more like Nicholas Schnee, patron of the Schnee family, a former farmhand who had invested his hard-earned lien in the right places until he had enough to open his own little stall in public markets.

That was her grandfather and Weiss was proud— and, to be perfectly honest, a little bit scared — that she will be the one to uphold the legacy of her grandfather's name, of **her** name. Her fears aside, she knew that she was perfect for the job and she wouldn't do anything that could jeopardize it.

The ride from the airport had taken a little over an hour and by the time, she and Klein had walked in through the front door, it was already dinner time according to her Schnee schedule. As the chauffer had carried her belongings to the apartment, Klein had offered to prepare dinner for her, which she declined. She was a little too exhausted than hungry anyway.

Besides, she was thrilled to start getting to know her new apartment. A space that was going to be completely hers. Far away from the machismo atmosphere back in Schnee Manor.

Everything in the apartment was a much lighter shade of baby blue from the wool carpet in the middle of the living room to the walls in every room. The doors were all white with silver handles. There were large awning windows on one side of the wall that overlooked the neighborhood. Everything looked perfect.

The apartment was wide; one big kitchen, a dining area that could seat eight people, a living room with an eighty-inch flat screen TV with a sleek sound system. There were three bedrooms; the biggest one was hers, the other was for Klein and a guestroom that she might possibly need some time in the future. Who knows?

She was a Schnee. Everyone knew the Schnee family name and everyone knew who Weiss Schnee was. She was heir to the Schnee Dust Company, its properties and the massive fortune tied to the name. And if Beacon University was as prestigious as the website and pamphlets claimed it to be, she'll have no trouble creating her own circle of elite friends.

But first she'll have to get some sleep. Memorizing the layout of her new apartment will come tomorrow. This was her new home. She had all the time in the world to familiarize herself with every nook and cranny. Weiss Schnee did not like uncertainty.

She groaned as she lay underneath her covers. Fifteen minutes had passed since she had actually gotten into it and despite her exhaustion, her body refused to sleep. She thought of hopeful things while she waited for sleep to finally take over, thinking of that two-thousand-lien vision, minus the fate of the Faunus fortune-teller. There will be room for regret some other time.

Tonight, she only thought of red.

And red was the only thing that she couldn't get out of her mind the entire first day at Beacon University. It was not as she thought it would be. This distinguished educational institution that boasted "world-class education", its renown known all throughout the four kingdoms of Remnant was crawling with the most repulsive creatures — _Faunus_.

One or two would have been excusable, but she had seen several running around and spreading all kinds of diseases in the air, sat in the cafeterias and walked wherever they pleased.

 _When did this happen?_

She had to give the administration a call. No, she had to go there personally and demand answers from whoever was responsible for this travesty. If her father found out about this, he would throw a fit and drag her back to Atlas. It had taken all of her wit and careful explanation just to convince him to let her study abroad and these filthy animals were not going to take this all away from her.

It was already a quarter past five and the offices would have already been closed half an hour ago, but she was Weiss Schnee, heir to Schnee Dust Company and its properties and fortune. She **will** meet with them and they will sort all of this out by tomorrow morning. The only response that she will accept is "Right away, Ms. Schnee". Nothing less.

She stormed off to the direction of an ancient building that was in need of repainting. The sun was already setting and she had to hurry, but that was no excuse to stomp around like a klutz. She did it with grace, with all of the Schnee dignity her legs would allow in her fury.

There was one problem.

She didn't know where she was going.

She had visited the campus before, had tried to memorize which class was going to be in which building, but she had never actually gotten around to knowing what the other buildings were for. She looked around at the few students passing her by without any recognition of who she was until she was left entirely by herself, a confused young woman in front of this building.

This pink building. The sun was about to set and she was standing in front of this pink building. She had been in this moment before, had seen it play out a million times in her head. This was it. This was where she was going to meet the one.

 _Is today the day?_

All she had to do was wait a little bit longer, stand right where she was standing this very instant and wait. She looked around at the pink building and had found the sign: Johnson Hall, bronze engraving almost faded from years of neglect.

It wouldn't hurt to have the filthy animals crawl around campus another day. She doubted she'd get a warm reception at the administrative offices anyway.

 _Is today the day?_

Weiss Schnee ran her clammy hands through her off-center ponytail, straightened her sleeves and dusted off whatever microscopic bacteria had clung to her skirt. She could not afford to look anything less than immaculate. Not today of all days. If today really was the day.

 _Where are you?_

"A-are you lost?" a small voice squeaked behind her. Weiss turned to the source and stifled her own squeak. Standing before her was a young girl, smaller than her voice dressed in a brown coat three sizes too big for her, blue ripped jeans and a pair of red beat-up sneakers.

 _Where did she come from?_

Weiss took another look at this girl, from her mop of black hair with its ridiculous red-dyed tips, her childlike face, the nervous smile on her lips, the way her small hand scratched the back of her neck, but most of all, Weiss Schnee stared straight into a pair of eyes she had never seen before — silver.

She couldn't help but stare a little bit longer at her unusual, but not at all unpleasant, eyes. In fact, they looked… enchanting?

"Hello?" the girl's hand had found its way right in front of Weiss's face, waving her back from whatever trance she just had.

"What?" Weiss cleared her throat, "What did you say?"

"Are you lost?" the girl giggled nervously, pulling her hand behind her back and bouncing on her heels as if she couldn't bear to be motionless for more than two minutes, "Because if you are, I could show you where you need to go."

"That's fine." Weiss folded her arms over her chest and turned away, "I'm not lost."

"Then are you waiting for somebody?" she pressed on.

 _Yes, I am._

"No." Weiss lied, hoping that that would be the end of the conversation. A Schnee waited for no one. Everyone would flock towards her, would shower her with attention. Weiss never waited for anyone.

Except now.

"Are you new here?" the girl asked again, her left foot digging into the pavement, "I've never seen you around before."

Weiss froze. This girl did not know who she was, had no idea who she was talking to. Slowly, she turned towards her, mouth open and ready to introduce herself — something she had never done in years — to **this girl**.

"I'm We—"

"Weiss?"

Weiss Schnee swore she had heard that voice before. Not recently, but she had heard it so often in her younger years. She turned her gaze back to the pink building, her blue eyes locked on to a pair of bright green eyes that she knew she had seen before, framed by soft ginger hair, freckles peppered over the bridge of her nose and her cheeks. She looked exactly like she had been since the last time they saw each other. Only, this time, she didn't have a smile on her face.

"Penny?" Weiss watched as Penny Polendina stood beside the girl she had been speaking with, watched as the frown where her smile used to be deepened the longer she looked.

None of them had moved and it was beginning to feel a little too uncomfortable for Weiss. Penny clearly was not going to say anything more to her and she had no intention of prolonging this agonizing staring contest.

"I'll be going then." Weiss stepped around them and made her way to the entrance of the university, somewhere she was sure of and where Klein would be waiting for her. Still, Penny and the other girl had said nothing and simply watched her leave.

It took all of her willpower not to have shouted at Penny. They hadn't seen or heard from each other in years and this was how she greeted her? She used to be nicer.

 _She used to be happier around me._

In the distance, Weiss heard several voices. She was grateful that she had missed them and they had missed the awkward encounter with Penny.

Everything was not going as she expected. That stupid Faunus lied to her. Madame Leona had assured her that everything was going to go smoothly. She had even seen it when she held that crystal ball. Weiss took back every single feeling of regret and guilt she had ever felt about what happened to that fortune-teller. Two thousand lien for empty promises and an unexpected meeting with Penny? Weiss was glad her father had that cheater imprisoned.

But the damage was irreparable. Despite everything that had happened today, she still felt that little flicker of hope burning low in her soul. She had gotten this far. There was no room for giving up.

Weiss Schnee will have her happy ending. All she needed to do was come up with a contingency plan. Maybe several.


	2. Accidents and Chaos

**A/N: I'm sorry it took so long. I was not feeling okay for the past weeks. I hope you like this one. :)**

* * *

It had been another night of exhaustion, brought about by boundless rage. This was the third night that this has happened and Weiss Schnee couldn't help it.

She had come to Vale expecting a brand new start, a good one, a clean slate that offered fresh opportunities, but in the last four days since she arrived, there was nothing but old enemies and half-forgotten ghosts.

She had been hounding the Beacon University administration, demanding that the president, no less, to see her and explain why they would allow these Faunus to run free among the rest of the student body. It also shocked her how it didn't bother the other humans. Was it complacence? Did the administration threaten them with expulsion if they ever argued about the animals' presence?

This was getting out of hand. The line between decent folk and these beasts was erased and, of course, a Schnee was going to have to put order back into the mess that this President Ozpin had created.

But that would have to wait. She had other powerful men to deal with.

Most of her classes were scheduled in the afternoon, so her mornings were free to facilitate the SDC-V as closely as she could. Weiss could always get her other employees to do most of the managing for her. That was how it usually went. SDC did not hire incompetent people. They hired the best of the best, the cream of the crop and they would even go so far as to poach their topnotch employees from their competitors.

But Weiss Schnee aimed to be the best Schnee in the family. She was tired of being second and she had to prove to her entire family that she was more than capable of managing the corporate empire her grandfather had raised from the ground.

Corporate success did not come without its fair share of naysayers and opposition. There are those who did not approve of Nicholas Schnee's decision to pass down his entire legacy to his granddaughters. It was no secret that Grandfather Schnee did not approve of the man that his daughter married. Jacques was ambitious… a dangerous kind of ambitious.

Sitting in the boardroom of their temporary headquarters, Weiss Schnee could feel the condescension of her colleagues bubbling beneath the surface of their cordial responses and backhand praises. She had barely gotten an idea across when she had been cut off with a "Great idea, Ms. Schnee, but…"

 _Was it like this for Winter?_

The vast majority of these men were three times her age and have been in the business for over two decades, but they were talking to a Schnee. Weiss was practically born into this, raised to run an empire even before she could speak The Schnee Dust Company was not just in her name, it was in her blood. This was her birthright.

That never stopped the whispers though.

And the whispers she heard on her way to the restroom after the meeting echoed in her mind. Weiss knew that Winter was not a favorite of the SDC employees. She didn't even like her own sister very much. Winter was bossy, demanding and brutal.

"Winter was glamorous though." She recalled one of them whisper, "She was also a bitch."

The other one snickered, "Must run in the family."

Weiss was used to these comments. She had heard them all throughout her early teens, had heard it from people who had claimed to be her friends. Nobody had ever been brave enough to say it to her face though, but the next whispers had made her blood boil.

"Only this time," a third voice had said, "we're being bossed around by an _inexperienced_ bitch. How long until she runs SDC to the ground?"

It was at this moment that Weiss had calmly presented herself to them, jaw-squared and fists clenched behind her thighs. She reveled in the panic in their eyes and the fear in their voices. Useless apologies were thrown in quick succession. How these slackers can afford to speak so critically about her is a mystery considering they might not be able to afford unemployment at the end of the week.

"You should all be working," Weiss kept her voice even, "not gossiping. This behavior is what's going to put the company out of business, not that I would let that happen."

They scrambled out of her sight, disbelief and a little bit of relief in their apologies and excuses.

Yes, Weiss Schnee was used to it as much as she was used to staring at her own reflection in bathroom mirrors, her mind going over the face that she had taken great care of. Flawless, except for the scar over her left eye. She traced the horrid line with her finger and scowled.

Everyone had said it was just an accident. Weiss had even said so herself, but deep in her mind, she knew that the accident was fueled by a small intent to harm her.

 _She was also a bitch._

Winter Schnee, the first-born daughter of the Schnee family, perfect in every way, with her words and her cunning as sharp as the blade that had almost cost Weiss her left eye. Winter must have felt threatened that her younger sister was almost as good as she was, probably even better. But **almost** is what Weiss should always be and the scar was a symbol of that.

"Accidents happen all the time." Winter had said that day, cold blue eyes devoid of sympathy at the sight of blood trickling down her younger sister's face.

 _That was not an accident._

Winter Schnee was the best fencer in the family, the most disciplined among the Schnee children. She should have had more control. She should have stopped.

Weiss held her breath and stared at her own reflection, at the scar that ruined her perfect face. She felt her shoulders relax when she let out her breath and brushed her hair back in place, to slightly cover up the mess that her sister had done.

She wasn't ashamed of her scar, nor was she proud of it, but it was Winter's parting gift to her. Well, the scar and the right to the Schnee Dust Company with all its properties and fortune. Who would have known that almost losing an eye would lead to gaining so much more?

She reached for the door handle, readying herself before she walked back to the lion's den. That was when she heard it: the sound of glass shattering, people rushing, shouting and panicking from the other side of the door.

She stood still, listening, waiting for the right moment to make her move. The panic had died down, but there was still shouting, men barking instructions to chase down whoever had done **this** and for someone to clean up this mess. She never heard anyone ask where she was.

Regaining her composure, she twisted the knob, held her head high and beheld the chaos that all of her employees had seen and, possibly, everyone else outside could see. The big glass window that had the Schnee logo etched into it had been reduced to shards, scattered all over the lobby. Right in the middle of the mess was a brick and a threat written in black marker.

Go back to Atlas

"Ms. Schnee," Klein rushed to her side, "are you—"

"I want that window replaced by the end of the day." Weiss demanded, raising a gentle hand to calm Klein and demand the attention of the rest of the people present. "This must not get out to the press."

"But Ms. Schnee—" someone had dared to interrupt her, a slightly older woman who served as the receptionist of their little office, hands shaking and lips quivering.

"SDC-V will go on as scheduled." Weiss kicked a piece of glass away from her foot, "Did anyone see who did this?"

The murmurs began. Nobody felt like saying it directly and Weiss Schnee was losing her patience with their collective deflection. It would seem that everyone had an inkling of who the perpetrator was or were, but none had the courage to say it with an open mouth.

"…the same Faunus…"

"…here two weeks ago…"

"…filthy scum…"

"…disgusting tails…"

"They got away." One man ran back into the office, sweat dripping down his chin, his tie halfway undone and his brown hair a mess. He must have been the one who thought he could catch one of them. What a stupid idea. The Faunus were part beasts.

Weiss could only hope that whoever _**they**_ were, the security cameras had gotten a good look at them.

She had instructed for everybody to return to work while someone cleaned up the mess and another was going to file a report to the Vale police department. She would have to let the shaken receptionist handle the glass replacement to give her something else to do. Calm and stern. There was no room for panic.

She left the office soon after, sitting in the backseat of the car as Klein silently drove her to Beacon University— where there were more Faunus walking free.

It was only then that she had allowed herself to take a breath, to draw out the panic that she had pushed back. She stared at her hands, long fingers trembling; her knees twitched underneath her white dress. She was proud of the way she had carried herself the entire time.

If it had been Winter in her position, she would have made things worse: shouting, demanding that those vandals be brought before her, terrorizing the rest of the staff when they would return with news that they had escaped. That would have looked bad and it would have attracted unnecessary negative press that would further taint the Schnee name.

Her thoughts lingered on this morning's events. The words of her professors barely audible over the memory of the murmurs and breaking glass, the writings on the board morphed into those four words written in black marker.

 _Go back to Atlas._

"Damn those Faunus." She cursed under her breath, walking out of the last lecture of the day.

Weiss was exhausted and all she wanted to do was to crawl into her large bed and sleep off the drama of today, to forget that such vile creatures existed in Remnant for an hour or two. She had hoped to hear good news the next day, that the police had caught the lowlifes that vandalized the SDC-V office.

She passed by Johnson Hall on the way to the parking area where she was sure Klein would be waiting for her. She stared at the pink walls, cold blue eyes read the bronze engraving and then she stopped. A wave of nostalgia had held her in place.

Did it always look like this when the sun sets?

She could feel it in her bones. Today was going to be the day and there was nothing in all of Remnant that would get in her way. Not that she would let that happen again. She needed it today. Weiss Schnee was tired and all she wanted was a little bit of happiness, even just a miniscule fraction of it, even for just a second.

She heard footsteps coming from inside the building. Someone was rushing to go outside, towards her, to meet her, to love her and from now on, her life would be brimming with roses. Only a few more steps, a few more moments. Weiss held her breath, her soul begging her body to move forward.

She hadn't expected to see a pair of feline ears perk up at the sight of her, yellow eyes wide with surprise that mirrored Weiss' expression. Her eyes were wider, tears wishing to escape from their golden restraint.

Weiss stared at her, black hair falling in soft curls just above her waist. She looked small in the red jacket that she had lazily draped over her shoulders.

She was pretty. For a Faunus.

"Blake!" a voice had called after her followed by a bulky young man, white shirt almost properly buttoned, blond hair poking out in all directions. He had been walking a little too fast, afraid that he might not be able to catch up to the cat Faunus that he had been chasing, that he pushed past her and crashed into Weiss.

"Sorry!" he said, holding Weiss by the shoulders to keep them both from toppling over, a tail circled around his leg.

He was a Faunus too and he was touching her.

"Get off me!" Weiss pushed his hands away. She took a step back and brushed what contamination that he had left on her shoulders off of her.

"Are you okay?" the tailed Faunus asked.

"Why this second-rate university allowed you animals here is beyond me." Weiss continued fussing with her outfit, eyes refusing to acknowledge the Faunus before her.

"Excuse me?" the cat Faunus scoffed, voice as sharp as a blade.

"You heard me." Weiss finally looked up at them, her eyes narrowed and displayed the contempt and disgust she felt. What little pity she had for this girl vanished and the only thing she could think of was the threat from this morning.

 _Go back to Atlas._

"You ungrateful beasts were given an entire island and yet you're still here." She folded her arms over her chest and stood tall. Maybe they wouldn't notice that wasn't as tall as they were.

"An entire island completely cut off from the rest of Remnant?" the cat Faunus raised her voice, the red jacket falling off of her shoulders as she pointed a threatening finger at Weiss, crumpling to the ground around her boots.

"That's not my problem now, is it?" Weiss could feel the panic rising to her throat. She was challenging **two** Faunus while she stood by herself. It could be that these were the same vandals that had threw that brick through the glass window. It could be that she had put herself in danger.

Her tailed companion moved away from Weiss and stood beside her, "Blake, what's—"

"Weiss!"

 _Of course, she'd be here._

All three of them had turned to see Penny Polendina herself, half-running to _help_ diffuse the situation. Weiss felt a little bit of relief to see another human, felt fearless the moment she had seen an uncomfortable smaller girl trailing behind her. Ruby.

"Penny, I'm glad you could make it." Weiss lied.

"Please forgive Weiss," Penny ignored her and addressed the two Faunus, standing a little bit too close to them, "She's new here."

 _Does she know these dregs?_

The cat Faunus tightened her lips and stood at her full height, her yellow eyes burning into Penny's. She opened her mouth, ready to lash out and bare her teeth, to threaten them like the animal that she was, but Ruby had moved closer and placed her small hand on Penny's shoulder. That had been enough to tame the wild beast before Weiss.

"We're sorry, Blake." Ruby's voice was tiny and cracked, as if she was scared to speak to her. Her silver eyes never left her battered shoes.

Weiss watched as a torrent of emotions battled inside the Faunus' mind. She cast a threatening gaze in Weiss' direction, but she wasn't scared. She stood her ground. The animal looked as if she was trying to piece a retort together in her mind, but words had failed her.

The cat Faunus quickly shut her mouth and turned the opposite direction, grabbing the fallen jacket on the ground before she had dragged the tailed Faunus away from them. She never spared another word, another glance. She simply left and that made Weiss happy.

She looked at her saviors, at Penny and Ruby and marveled at how their presence had driven those animals off. Mostly, at how compliant they were to the tiny voice of this small girl scratching her wrist behind Penny.

Weiss pushed her feelings aside, a rare occurrence indeed, but a Schnee knows how to be a gracious human being to those who had helped her. It was only fair. She dusted her shoulders off for good measure. There was no telling how rapidly these Faunus diseases spread. She would have to dispose of her outfit to be sure.

"Thank you, Penny." Halfway through the smile she had forced to make, Weiss saw the anger in Penny's bright green eyes and frowned instead.

"Nothing's changed with you." Penny's voice was even, but heavy against Weiss' chest, "All these years and you're still the same Weiss, the same Schnee."

"And you're as whiny as you always were." Weiss shot back, quite undignified, but it was the best she could come up with. Penny might have just saved her from a potential Faunus attack, but she was being very difficult at the moment.

Weiss glared at the other girl. After all these years, she had not only retained her whiny nature, but turned into a Faunus-loving idiot who thought she could talk to Weiss like some common girl. No, she was Weiss Schnee, heir to the Schnee Dust Company and she— she was a crybaby, the lonely girl of a broken family.

Penny squared her jaw, her green eyes still piercing through the coldness in Weiss' blue ones. Without a word, she inched forward and reached for Weiss' wrist. It wasn't at all painful, but it wasn't too gentle either. The first thing that popped into Weiss' head was that Penny was going to hurt her, but her actions were weak. Pathetic.

She never thought that Penny would drag her away from the building, would grab Ruby and drag her as well. Penny was surprisingly strong at that instant and Weiss' body still hadn't recovered fully from this morning's shock. She was a puppet and Penny was the puppeteer.

There was nothing she could do but watch as the ribbon on Penny's head bounce as they walked. She kept her pace so that she wouldn't trip on her own useless legs. Weiss tried to understand what exactly was happening, had tried to find an ally in her fellow captive, Ruby, but her silver eyes were as cold as metal and refused to look at her.

Weiss did nothing wrong. She was only defending herself, but Penny had made her seem the villain and now Ruby thought of her as so. It shouldn't matter what the small girl thought.

But it did.


	3. Used To Be

Penny was never unkind. Penny was never this forceful. Penny had never raised her voice at all ever since she had met the ginger-haired girl, but Ruby knew that everyone can be pushed into acting differently than they usually did. She just never thought Penny would be this way at all and all because of this Weiss girl.

Who was she anyway? Why is Penny acting so weird around her? And how can sweet Penny know someone as crabby as this girl?

Ever since Cardin Winchester had been kicked out of the school, Beacon had never had a problem with a racist student. But here was this Weiss girl, walking around and hurling degrading comments at the Faunus just like Cardin had. What would it take before she starts physically hurting them as well?

She didn't look like she could hurt anyone, not to Ruby. Sure, her arms looked strong enough to hurt somebody, but looking at her now, being dragged around like some ragdoll by Penny, she didn't look like she could hurt a fly.

Still, her words had hurt. Ruby and Penny had heard everything Weiss said to Blake and Sun. The two friends were walking to Bailey Hall, minding their own business when they had spotted Weiss standing in front of Johnson Hall, like she had been the first time she and Weiss had met.

If you could call it a meeting.

Penny had asked her if they could circle around Johnson Hall to avoid getting closer to her, but before Ruby could ask her why she didn't want to be near Weiss, she had heard Sun's voice calling for Blake. Penny had heard it too and all thoughts of staying away went out the door.

"Why this second-rate university allowed you animals here is beyond me." They had heard her say.

 _She called them animals._

Ruby thought that most of the people in Remnant would be much more accepting of the Faunus, but this Weiss was clearly the few that treats them like second-class citizens. Blake and Sun were nice people. They were probably one of the nicest Ruby had ever had the pleasure of meeting and here comes this girl who had told them that they don't belong here.

She didn't even know them.

She wondered if Blake was alright. Sun must have calmed her down by now, she was sure of it. Ruby just couldn't help but feel that she should have done more and wondered how things turned out the way they did.

Penny seemed to be dragging them further away from their original destination. It would seem that her forgotten umbrella would have to be a lost one now since they were far from Bailey Hall. In fact, they were approaching Mercer Building.

As Ruby had expected, the building was almost deserted. Only a few students had strolled down the corridors, arms around their text books and eyes glued to their Scrolls. Penny had led them to one of the benches a little ways off from them. Not that they would even hear anything if Penny and Weiss would argue right next to them. They were all busy with other things.

"You can't go around acting like you own the place, Weiss." Penny had released both Ruby's and Weiss' wrists and turned to their blue-eyed companion, "The Faunus are people too and they deserve your respect, but you treat them like dirt."

"Those Faunus are criminals." Weiss folded her arms over her chest and raised her head high, "They're nothing but trouble and I can't believe you would take their side. They were **clearly** going to attack me."

"They weren't going to attack you." Penny shot back, "And even if they did, it was because you incited it. You called them animals, you were being as bigoted as your father."

"And now it's **my** fault?"

Ruby knew that this was going to be a long argument that she should not even be a part of it, but she didn't want to leave Penny alone, not with this girl. A tiny part of Ruby wanted to clamp her hand over Weiss' mouth, but an even tinier part had felt sorry for her, felt sorry for how limited her worldview was.

Without removing her eyes from the argument, Ruby walked backwards to one of the benches nearby. When her leg had brushed against the wooden seat, she silently plopped down into it, still staring at Penny and Weiss.

The way they spoke to each other was a sure sign that they have known each other long, but they were visibly very angry at each other for Ruby to conclude that they were friends. But maybe they were? It was possible that Penny might have been just as mean as Weiss was.

Ruby scratched the back of her neck.

That's impossible. She could never imagine Penny being anything but sweet and kind. It was possible that Weiss would have been just as sweet and kind as Penny. When she was younger, maybe? When she was a lot happier about the world.

Ruby stared at her and wondered if that sad look on her face had ever given way for a smile, if her cold blue eyes had ever looked at anyone warmly. If it was not for other people, then it could be that she had smiled for her parents. A sight that was reserved for them and them alone.

Maybe the two of them had been classmates at some point. She recalled Penny telling her that she had moved to Vale from Atlas when she was thirteen, after her parents' divorce. Weiss did look as if she was as old as they were. It could be a possibility.

"You used to be a lot nicer, Weiss." Ruby heard Penny say, "What happened to you?"

"What do you mean what happened to me?" Weiss retorted, "You're the one who stopped talking to me."

A third possibility came into Ruby's mind, a thought that was inspired by recent events. She looked at the two girls once more, observed the way they stood, the way they glowered at each other. Such hate could have been borne from the end of something much closer, much more intimate.

"Because you told me not to!" Penny announced so ferociously that Ruby wondered just how well she knew her own friend.

Weiss said nothing. Her arms fell to her sides and for a brief second, Ruby saw pain shimmering in her blue eyes, a little bit of warmth ebbing away into the cold buried inside of her. In a split-second, that warmth disappeared and Weiss was back to her normal self, cold as ice, not a single trace of warmth left inside. Did she imagine it being there?

"Because you only care about yourself!" Weiss forcefully poked her finger into Penny's shoulder, causing the timid girl to take a step back, "Not once have you asked me how I felt, if I was okay. No, you only talked about you and how miserable you were, how lonely you were. What was I then? I was there for you, Penny."

Ruby shot to her feet, regretting how she had moved away from the two of them and had allowed Weiss to hurt Penny. Forget what she thought that this girl couldn't hurt a fly. She could if she wanted to and she looked as if she wanted to hurt anything that stood in her way.

Without thinking, Ruby stood in front of Penny just in time to shield the poor girl from Weiss' finger. She channeled her inner Yang, mimicked how her older sister would look when she was angry. Maybe that would stop Weiss from hurting anyone anymore.

But she wasn't Yang and she wasn't half as strong as her sister. She was Ruby Rose. A small girl who had always watched as her sister fought her battles for her.

"Stop it." It was meant to sound intimidating, like a threat, but her own voice had betrayed her. She shrank even more the moment blue eyes locked on hers.

"Do you even know who you're talking to?" Weiss' eyes seemed to have frozen Ruby in place.

"Umm… Weiss?"

That was all she knew about this girl. Her name and the fact that she was mean and that she treated practically everyone like they weren't good enough. It was becoming increasingly difficult to believe that Penny had felt anything other than pure anger for this girl.

"That's right. I am Weiss Schnee, heir to the Schnee Dust Company." She said so matter-of-factly, as if that would have been enough for Ruby to dismiss her rudeness, "And you— you're just a child."

"I am not a child!"

Before Ruby and Weiss could say anything else, before they doused the fire of their argument with more gasoline, Penny had gently pulled Ruby away with one hand while the other wiped a tear from her freckled cheek.

"Weiss, stop it." Penny pleaded, the ferocity was gone.

There was that warmth again, dancing in Weiss' eyes. She raised her arms in surrender and turned her head away, displaying the scar that Ruby hadn't noticed before. "I was done talking anyway."

With that, Weiss Schnee, heir to the Schnee Dust Company, turned her back on them and left the two girls gaping at her. Before she could disappear out of the building, she shot both of them one final look. Her cold blue eyes lingered a little bit longer on Ruby, with an expression that the young girl could not understand.

Ruby was surprised to feel a gentle hand on her shoulder, surprised at the sudden pain that pounded on her chest where Weiss finger had poked her. That girl was definitely a lot stronger than she looked.

"I'm sorry you had to see that." Penny smiled softly, far from the fearless girl she had been just a minute ago. Penny was back to her usual self. Well, not entirely. She was gentle once more, a little bit timid but a whole lot sadder. "I'm sorry that I **literally** dragged you into this."

"It's okay." Ruby assured her with a smile that radiated all of her Ruby-ness. It wouldn't be a good idea to upset Penny more than she already was.

"I hope we never run into her again anytime soon." Penny sighed.

"How do you even know each other?" Ruby had been wanting to ask that since the first day that she and Penny had run into Weiss, but Penny had been very evasive that day. No, she was mad after she had seen Weiss Schnee that Ruby couldn't find it in herself to ask.

But Ruby wanted to know the circumstances that had brought Penny and Weiss together. What did Penny see in Weiss?

The ginger-haired girl had only laughed and trotted towards the bench that Ruby had been sitting on earlier. She sat herself down and stared, wide-eyed, at Ruby, waiting for her to sit right next to her. It would seem that Penny was completely back to her usual self. Ruby approached the bench and sat herself down where her friend had wanted her to be.

 _I bet this is gonna be a long story._

"This is gonna be a long story." Penny cheered, as if she had just read Ruby's mind, "Weiss and I used to be very close."

Ruby couldn't help but feel like wanting to press for a more detailed explanation. She had already come up with three possibilities of who Weiss was and Penny's vague response did not affirm or deny those possibilities. She had to drop all courtesy aside and most likely go straight to the question she wanted to ask.

"Like _she-used-to-be-your-girlfriend_ close?" Ruby mumbled a little bit faster than she normally would. If she was wrong, then Penny might not have caught a single word of what she said and if she was right, then she would only have to repeat herself.

But Penny's face contorted into utter disgust. That could only mean that the third possibility of Penny and Weiss' relationship was out of the question, but the ginger-haired girl wasn't answering her question directly.

"Sorry." Ruby laughed nervously.

"Ewww." Penny said dryly.

"I'm **really** sorry."

"No." still no direct answer.

"Then who is she?" Ruby kept her impatience in check, but the suspense was killing her.

 _An old friend? An old classmate? Your long-lost sister? Your long-lost dog?_

"She's my cousin."

Ruby could see the smile on Penny's lips. She had a nice smile. She always did. She didn't know how she felt about this one though. This one was smaller and her eyes were shiny with unshed tears.

"We used to be very close." Penny forced herself to laugh, "I guess you can say that we were the best of friends... I'm not very good with making friends and being born into a privileged household, I was always put on a different level than the other kids. I didn't have any friends… but I had Weiss.

"I spent most of my Saturday afternoons playing and chatting with Weiss. Our parents would always have work meetings in her house, so I would always be told to go out and play with my cousins. Winter, Weiss' older sister, had always scared me. Whitley was _respectful_ but he wasn't the nicest boy. Weiss spoke so little then, but she was very patient with me."

Ruby snickered. She hadn't meant to, but the thought of Weiss as patient was far-fetched. She slapped both her small hands over her mouth, silver eyes wide with shame of interrupting Penny. The ginger-haired girl had only smiled at her and this smile was much better than the previous one.

"I know," Penny giggled, "but she was. She was very, very nice too."

"What happened?"

 _Nothing good, obviously._

"I don't know." Penny sighed, throwing her head back to rest against the bench so she could stare up at the sky. Or better yet, to keep whatever tears were left from falling. "Bad things happened, one after another, and before I knew it, my parents told me that they were getting a divorce, that I had to choose if I wanted to stay with my dad or move away with my mom."

Ruby had heard this story before. Penny had told her a few months back about how awful it was to have to choose between her mother and father. They had both loved her so dearly and she loved them both. If it had been entirely up to her, Penny would have wanted to have them back together, to choose her mother **and** her father, to be the happy family she believed them to be.

In the end, Penny had decided that she would move to Vale with her mother. A part of her had done it after she had realized just how much her mother had needed her while another part of her knew that she would probably get in her father's way. She said that he was always such a busy man.

"I told Weiss during one of our Saturday afternoons. I told her that I was leaving Atlas to come here." Penny laughed once more, to hide the sadness in her voice that Ruby could still hear, "She did not take it too well."

Ruby had imagined the scene as best as she could. She originally pictured Penny and Weiss sitting on a blanket on the grass, a lake to their right and the sun setting and making everything look a lot more orange. No, that's too romantic. They're cousins! Alright. They were sitting on chairs, having hot chocolate and the afternoon was not too hot, but not too bright either. As soon as Penny had told Weiss that she was moving away, the other girl pushes her chair back, sending it toppling over as she stands up and slams her open palm on the table. The hot chocolate spills all over the table and Penny just looks at her, dumbfounded at Weiss' crazy actions. She imagined Weiss had said the same thing to Penny then as she did a few minutes ago, imagined her storming off into their house and slamming doors, stomping her feet and shouting all sorts of mayhem at those who were close enough to hear.

Ruby shook her head and kicked her mind in the butt.

She knew nothing about Weiss. For all of her telling behavior the couple of times that they had run into each other, she still had no right to assume that Weiss was this completely terrible person, insensitive and devoid of remorse. Penny had said it herself.

 _She was very, very nice._

"She just looked at me." Penny continued, blissfully unaware of Ruby's wild imagination, "Don't get me wrong, we were already growing apart then, joking less, laughing less, talking less, but she always sat with me. She whispered that she was sorry my parents were getting a divorce and that it would be best if we just stopped talking then and there before it became a chore."

Ruby understood what Penny meant. That sort of thing happened to her when she had left Patch to attend Beacon University. She and her high school friends had all agreed to keep in touch with each other. The first few weeks, they had all kept their promise. Eventually, the late-night calls had turned to half-hearted messages coupled with explanations that they were busy.

She couldn't blame them. She was busy too. And her first year was filled with so much drama that started when her sister, Yang, had started dating Cardin Winchester.

"She'll never admit it," Penny brought her back to the present, the current Cardin, "and I hope you never repeat what I'm about to say next."

"My lips are sealed." Ruby furiously nodded her head.

"Weiss was, or maybe still is, as lonely as I had been." Penny said softly.

"She does seem to **not** have any friends." Ruby whispered, fearing that Weiss Schnee might be lurking in the corner, listening, waiting to stab them with her finger.

"She had friends." Penny corrected her, "I guess I was just never really one of them. I don't think they were very good friends because of how Weiss turned out after all these years."

Ruby hummed in agreement. No, she just hummed as a substitute for a response that she couldn't find. She and Penny had been friends since their first year, had been near inseparable since then and the two of them had shared thousands of things with each other.

But here they were, sitting on a bench, unable to say anything more. Ruby had just learned a part of Penny's life that she had not mentioned before. Would she have told her about Weiss if they hadn't run into her the other day?

Penny seemed better off without Weiss. Ruby had heard the difficult beginnings of her friend's new life in Vale, how difficult it had been to deal with her mother's romantic partners after the divorce and her father's broken promises of visiting her on her birthday and the holidays. Everything turned out fine after a while.

Penny's father's company had been extremely successful, enough to move their main office here in Vale. He had done it so he could be closer to his daughter, to make up for all of the things that he had done, he had missed out on and the emotions that Penny must have felt in the wake of their separation.

Despite her first impression of Weiss, Ruby believed in Penny's words, in Penny's memories. Maybe Weiss **was** a very, very nice person, a very lonely, very nice person who was not very good at dealing with different kinds of people. Maybe she just needed proper guidance. Maybe she just needed the right friends.

Maybe she needed her old friend back.

"Hey, Penny?" Ruby drawled, a habit she had picked up from Yang.

"Yes, Ruby?" Penny was definitely back to her chipper old self, as if nothing happened.

"Do you think you and Weiss could ever be friends again?"

Penny blinked about three times before a nervous smile spread across her lips, "I'm not sure… No."

"Why not?" Ruby pushed herself off the bench with a single foot and used the same foot to spin on her heel to face Penny, "You said she used to be very, very nice."

"Yes…" Penny inched back, " **Used** to be. Now, I don't know."

"Maybe she just didn't have really good friend since you left. People change, Penny. It **is** possible that Weiss Knee could change for good."

"Schnee." Penny corrected in between her giggles.

"What do you say, Polendina?" Ruby held out her hand, a gesture that had made Penny stare at her in confusion, "Why don't we melt that crabby girl's heart?"

"You saw how she talked to Sun and Blake earlier." Penny nervously reminded her, "She didn't feel bad at all."

"Come on." She clapped Penny's shoulders as gently as she could, "There might be a slim chance that she'll go back to being the Weiss you remembered."

"I don't know…"

"Please?" Ruby pouted, her silver eyes as wide as saucers. If there was one thing she was sure of, it's that she could pull off the puppy dog eyes like no one else and that it always seemed to work.

"Fine." Penny sighed.

Ruby pulled her hands back and jumped at her little victory, "Yes!"

 _Works like a charm._

"But I have to warn you," Penny stood up, straightening her skirt and the tiniest of smiles formed on her face, "a Schnee is never wrong."

 _What's that supposed to mean?_

"You'll know what I mean." Penny added. Ruby still hadn't gotten used to Penny's innate skill at knowing just what she was thinking. Who's to say that she didn't know that Ruby would try to convince her to try to be friends with Weiss again in the first place?

Ruby went home with a skip to her step and a grin on her face. She was going to help _rehabilitate_ Weiss and to probably repair her relationship with Penny. She could hear it in Penny's voice, how much Weiss _Schnee_ had meant to her, how she had been there for Penny even though the ginger-haired girl hadn't said much. She just knew that everything was going to be okay and she was going to make it happen.

Something had to be okay in her life.

As soon as she had opened the door to their apartment, she spotted her older sister twitch. The blonde had been lazing on the couch, probably going through her Scroll for the nth time that day. She pretended not to notice how Yang had quickly wedged the device underneath her thigh, pretended not to notice how nervous she was when she turned to greet her sister with a crooked smile.

"Hey, sis." Yang greeted her, getting up from the couch and making her way to the kitchen area, "I'll start making dinner. Could you set the table, please?"

Yup. Here, it was definitely not okay. Ruby had come home later than usual, all thanks to that run-in with Weiss. If everything was okay, Yang would have called her half an hour ago, asking her where she was. If everything was okay, Yang would have remembered to ask her why she had come home late.

No, Yang was in the kitchen, opening and closing the fridge, barely a clue as to what she should really be doing. This was all clearly a distraction, to make it seem that she was busy, that she couldn't be bothered with questions.

Yang was smiling and humming a tune, half-dropping something into the kitchen sink as she went. Her cheeks were redder than usual and she was skipping. Yang Xiao Long was skipping!

"I'll just put my stuff away." Ruby mumbled.

"No worries, Ruby-boobies." Yang chortled, her back turned to her sister.

Yang's terrible jokes. If everything **was** okay, Yang would have paired that lame one with a wink or finger guns. But everything was not okay in their little apartment and Ruby couldn't do anything about it.

Yang was keeping secrets.


	4. On The Mend

"I'd just like to know," Weiss Schnee straightened her back against the lumpy cushion of the dark gray club chair, her blue eyes locked onto a pair of deep brown eyes behind a pair of tinted spectacles, "why you would allow the _Faunus_ into this university."

Ozpin, the president of Beacon University and the man who had the final say in everything that went on in this _fine_ institution, said nothing. He just looked at her, elbows on his large, circular glass desk, hands linked together to hide his lips.

Weiss waited. Just a little bit more.

Every single time that she had visited the president's office, his secretary would always supply her with reasons of why he was not available to speak with her, that he was on leave, that he was at a meeting, at a conference, at a seminar. Everything that he could think of until the time that he had run out of excuses.

Finally, she had paid them another visit, ready to find a more drastic approach that would make it clear that she meant business. Luckily for her, the secretary had greeted her warmly and had informed her that the president was going to meet with her at that very moment.

She had wanted to skip all the formalities and introductions. He was the president of Beacon University and she was Weiss Schnee, heir to the Schnee Dust Company with all its properties and fortune. Everybody already knew that. But she was raised better than that and there was always room to remind everyone of who she was in case they forgot.

"As you may be aware of, Ms. Schnee," Ozpin had finally said, pulling his elbows off of the table, "everyone has a right to education, the best that Beacon University can offer. It is our duty to share our knowledge and cultivate the younger generation into becoming upstanding citizens of society. That same right encompasses the Faunus. What good would it do to deny those who seek knowledge the right to education?"

Weiss was aware of that, "That still doesn't explain why you let them sit among your other students."

She saw Ozpin's lip twitch and his head tilt upwards by a mere centimeter, "Civilization has come a long way from such a barbaric suggestion. While there are many other universities that _discourage_ the admission of the Faunus, Beacon University is not one of those."

She was aware of that also. She was also aware that educational institutions all throughout Remnant had been integrating the Faunus with humans for a little over a decade, but there were many of those that resisted, many of those that were not nearly as good as Beacon University.

"Aren't you worried that these Faunus would terrorize your students?" Weiss asked plainly, remembering the hostility that that cat Faunus had exhibited, just how close to a potential attack she had been.

 _It was because you incited it._

"The only terrorism here that involved the Faunus was caused by a human." Ozpin declared, daggers in his voice, "It is sad to know that many of our students have tolerated such heinous acts out of fear that their rights would be stripped away in an instant."

Weiss fought the urge to look away from his gaze. She understood fear, the fear of having something taken away, but she wouldn't give this man the satisfaction of seeing her squirm. But she also understood that universities didn't operate on its educators' duty to share their knowledge alone. They needed money and they knew that to take in the Faunus would increase the income of the school.

If Ozpin had said that, she wouldn't have argued, but she guessed he needed to make Beacon University shine a little bit brighter.

"If you would like a Faunus-free education, Ms. Schnee," he added before she could say anything, getting up from his seat, regarding her in his most neutral expression. Weiss couldn't help but feel hopeful. President Ozpin was going to give her an alternative, a way for her to avoid the Faunus and be able to continue her studies in peace. "You won't find that here at Beacon, but I'm sure there are plenty of fine institutions in Atlas that have no intentions of admitting the Faunus into their schools."

 _Go back to Atlas._

Weiss could feel her heart being ripped out of her chest, the fear rising to her throat, crushing her lungs and stinging her eyes. She stood from the lumpy chair so fast that her vision darkened a little bit, but she kept her composure. She was Weiss Schnee and nobody had to know that she was afraid, but most importantly, what she was afraid of.

"I'm sorry to have to cut our meeting short." Ozpin broke the silence.

 _No, you're not._

"But I have a meeting to attend to and I'm sure you have meetings of your own. Running a school and a company may be different, but the meetings are probably similar."

President Ozpin showed her the door after his soft goodbyes. She straightened herself, graceful as ever and never showing any signs of her outrage. She had seen her fair share of defeat and each of those times, she acted as regally as she could manage. She had left the room as calmly as she had walked into it. She was the perfect Schnee after all.

Out in the corridor, she pulled her Scroll out to call Klein, but the number of missed calls and who they were from made her skin crawl. Whitley Schnee had been calling her since she arrived in Ozpin's office. That very moment, he had called her again and Weiss knew she had to answer it before the calls turned to visits.

"Whitley." She said dryly.

"Weiss." He sounded so happy, as if he was indeed happy to hear her, but Weiss knew better.

"How sweet of you to call." The words felt like ashes in her mouth.

"The SDC-V manager called yesterday." That was how it was with Whitley Schnee, he never bothered to say hello or ask her how she was doing, "Why didn't you tell father that a couple of Faunus attacked the office?"

 _That would mean I'd have to talk to you… or father._

"The issue has already been resolved," she made her way out of the building, irritated that she couldn't call Klein, but hopeful that he would be outside, waiting for her, "The broken window has already been replaced and a the security footage has been submitted to the police for investigation."

"That's not what I asked." He chuckled over the phone, he was capable of producing the most innocent sound that a human being could make, "Why didn't you call?"

"It wasn't necessary. I had it all under control."

"He still would've wanted to hear from you though. You **are** , in fact, his only daughter left. He was worried about you."

Weiss Schnee bit her tongue and tightened her grip on her Scroll. She hadn't bothered to call home at all and the morning she had left Atlas, her father had gone to the Dust factory early for a business meeting. Of course, he had brought along Whitley and that angered her.

The only goodbye she had ever uttered were to her intoxicated mother and even that was not heard.

Would it have killed her to let them know that she was alright, that she did handle the situation in the best way possible?

"Is that all?" she managed to say as she let herself out of the building. There was nothing else to say.

"I'll let him know you're unharmed." The line went dead.

Whitley ought to learn some manners. Their family had invested a lot of their finances in the Schnee children's education, much more on Whitley alone, but that seemed like a complete waste with the way he behaved. Then again, the same could be said about Winter. And, at the back of her mind, Weiss knew she wasn't better off.

Weiss was relieved to be sitting in the back seat with Klein driving them out of Beacon University. He had greeted her warmly, kindly. That was the kindest greeting she had heard all day and she bitterly thought that it would be the only one. The employees at SDC-V would display kindness and courtesy, but those were fueled by obligation and fear. Nothing genuine. Manufactured respect. Pretty as filigree, but cold as metal.

"Miss Schnee?" Klein had broken the silence in the vehicle. He knew when Weiss was upset, knew when to leave her to her thoughts. He was always aware of the things that she needed, the things that she wanted.

 _My love will be just like you._

She sighed, expelling all of her previous irritation before she addressed him, "Please, Klein. It's just Weiss."

"Weiss." He said carefully. For many years, this was how their conversations started. Although he knew that Weiss would rather he call her by her first name, he never forgot that he was still her butler, a servant employed to the Schnee family, "I think I may have a way that you could contact her."

Weiss Schnee was silent.

She studied Klein through the rear-view mirror. She had the perfect view of his eyes and he had the perfect view of hers. Her gaze was expectant, daring even, for him to say more. She knew exactly who he was referring to and they both didn't need to say her name. She wouldn't allow it.

"That's not necessary, Klein." She broke eye contact, "She will come to me when the time comes."

Weiss Schnee, heir to the Schnee Dust Company, was not going to make the first move. She wasn't even going to make any moves at all. The last time she had done so, she had gotten hurt. No, she was going to play this waiting game, knowing very well that the other one would get tired eventually.

Thankfully, Klein said no more. He knew when to leave her to her thoughts.

Just as she had expected, the staff of SDC-V greeted her as warmly as they could and had exchanged whispers and snickers behind her back. She had run out of energy to deal with such matters long ago. Time was money and she'd reap in twice as much if she kept her head up and focused on her own duties.

She was glad that the glass window had been replaced, but was disappointed that the Schnee logo was bigger than it had been. Not that she wasn't proud of her own name, but she knew that it was an invitation for another attack. She would have to tell someone go to VPD and have patrol cars circling this block to scare off any potential threat.

A dozen calls and a mountain of paperwork later, Weiss Schnee had found herself in her tiny office, elbows resting on a stack of liquidation forms, budget requests, reports from the contractors and meeting minutes, her Scroll inches from her face, thumbing through the photos of beaches and lunch dates.

 _Relationship goals. Friendship goals. Wedding goals. Fitspiration. Travel. Throwback Thursday._

This was probably the closest she could get to feeling like a teenager and the closest she would want to be. Weiss Schnee was not like a teenager. She was heir to the Schnee Dust Company, a young lady at the least and preferably a woman.

Still, the pull of social media is hard to resist and this was her way to connect with the rest of Remnant.

The spark of curiosity was gnawing at her though and she had found herself on the Search tab, the digital keyboard had already popped up. If she did put in a name, what would she find? What type of photos would she have posted, what kind of life could she be leading? Would there even be an account in the first place?

Once more, she had pushed the thought out of her mind as she put her Scroll away. That was enough getting in touch with the rest of Remnant for the day. There will always be more photos of sunsets, of beaches and idyllic dates on rooftops. Same concept, same photos, but with different names and different circumstances.

Weiss decided that she's also had enough with SDC-V matters and carefully filed the documents away, ready to be opened tomorrow, when she would come back. For now, she would have to return to being a student, to return to Beacon. She'll have to try and ignore the Faunus in the school.

There weren't really a lot of them, but having more than two or three was something that the Schnee family would not stand by it.

 _They're not going to find out._

The drive back to the university was quiet. Weiss was unsure whether or not Klein's silence was due to her attitude earlier or not. She wasn't too mean, was she? And it wasn't as if he hadn't known what her response would be.

She made sure to be as sweet as possible when she bid him goodbye and had told him that she would call when she was ready to return to the apartment. Klein was his usual jolly self, cheeks burning red at the smile that he had always flashed her.

Everything seemed fine, but everything didn't feel that way. Just a little bit.

It was all she could think of the entire afternoon. Her professors' words were an auditory mess, the numbers were all symbols she hadn't seen before. After the first half-hour, after the three attempts to pull her attention back to the present, she would give up and distract herself with anything she could find and, once again, she had found her eyes glued to her Scroll.

She would have to at least hear what Klein had to say, to give him a chance to say his entire piece. After all, she knew that he was doing this for her own good. Klein had always known her better than she did. There has to be a good reason why he would even mention _her_ in the first place. After all this time.

As soon as her last lecture ended, Weiss rushed out to speak with Klein. He would always forgive her for her harsh behavior towards him in an instant, but for her, the forgiving took a little more time. She called him, made sure to sound happier than earlier.

He was, after all, the only person who cared.

Before the call had ended, she had found herself in front of Johnson Hall again, but this time, she didn't want to think about how the sun had cast a golden glow over the pink building, how she wanted to stand and wait for her life to change. That would have to wait another day.

" _Madame Leona has already seen it, child."_

And Weiss will too.

But she couldn't help but stop for a minute or two, standing in front of the building and stared at the faded paint and the moss growing here and there. This wasn't exactly how the building looked in her two-thousand-lien vision, but then again, she wasn't really paying attention. All she knew was that she was standing right here.

She stared into the doorframe, waiting for a familiar silhouette, but there was nothing there. A part of her was scared that the two Faunus would walk out of the building and glare at her, but she would know if they would. The tailed-Faunus seemed to talk so loud and that would be enough of a warning for her to leave as soon as she could.

The minutes flew by and Weiss had resigned herself to thinking that today was not the day, but before she could even turn to go back to Klein, she heard footsteps. It was actually more like feet being dragged across the floor, but footsteps no less. So, she waited and in the blink of an eye, she had seen a small girl, dressed in oversized clothes, eyes to her Scroll.

"Hello." Weiss greeted her.

Weiss Schnee hadn't meant to be a little loud, but she thought that the earphones plugged into the girl's ears would impede her greeting. Perhaps she wasn't really listening to anything because she quickly locked her silver eyes on Weiss.

"Uh…" the small girl balled up her earphones and shoved it into the pocket of her jacket, "Hi, Weiss."

 _Finally, some recognition._

Weiss just stared at her. They had run into each other a few times in the most uncivilized ways and not once had she gotten a name. Before she could ask her what her name was, Weiss found an outstretched hand in front of her and a bright smile on the other girl's face.

"I'm Ruby Rose." She said, her voice soft but brimming with… joy?

 _Roses._

"It's nice to **finally** meet you, Ruby Rose." Weiss snapped herself out her own thoughts, gently wrapping her long fingers around Ruby's hand and giving one brief shake, "I believe you and Penny are friends."

"Yeah," Ruby drawled, burying her free hand in her short hair, "she told me about you."

 _Of course, she did._

"She's overreacting." Weiss tore her hand away from Ruby's, the same way she tore her eyes away from her silver pair and the warmth of her smile, "We just haven't seen each other in years."

"She told me that, too." Ruby nervously giggled.

Weiss bit her tongue. What else did Penny tell this girl? What sort of lies did she shove down her throat and how much of them did this Ruby Rose believe? Weiss studied the girl in front of her. She was smiling, as nervous as a duck, but still smiling, still standing in front of her.

This was a kindness she had not seen in another person before.

"She said you used to be very close." Ruby said before Weiss could think of anything useful to say.

"We were." Weiss admitted.

That was the truth. She and Penny used to be inseparable and at some point, Penny was the only person who she had ever opened up to, much more than Klein, Winter, Whitley and her parents.

"Maybe…" Ruby started, eyes darting left to right, her posture seemed as if she was ready to bolt at the first sign of danger, "if you guys talked to each other, you could be, I don't know, close again?"

Weiss did not like the idea. Sure, she and Penny might have been very close when they were younger, but it had been almost a decade since they last saw each other. A lot of things have happened and given how their most recent encounter turned out, she had no interest in trying to get along with her.

But she looked at Ruby Rose again, the kindness in her eyes and the gentleness in her voice and remembered the way those two Faunus had retreated when she had told them to.

Penny and this Ruby were friends and every time she had seen Ruby, Penny was in tow. If she wanted Ruby to stick around, she would have to just tolerate the presence of Penny. Every opportunity had its setbacks and she had more to gain by having Ruby around.

"Do you think she'll even talk to me after what happened?" Weiss willed herself to sound apologetic.

The look on Ruby's face was the reaction she had been expecting: worry. Her silver eyes, the ones Weiss thought seemed cold when they first met, actually held a little bit of warmth in them, a warmth she had never before seen on anyone else.

 _Why does she have to look at me this way?_

"Of course, she will!" Ruby cheered her up, hands firmly grasping Weiss' shoulders, unexpected, but completely welcome with each passing second. For a moment, she felt… safe.

"I'll talk to her for you, if you want." Ruby offered, silver eyes widened to the size of saucers. Weiss did not recall anyone having eyes as big as hers.

"Thank you." Weiss said softly.

"No prob, Bob!" Ruby finally took her hands away and shoved them into her pockets, a toothy grin on her face.

Weiss mentally giggled at the strange response. Nobody had ever spoken to her so freely before and quite so informally. There was no note of condescension in her voice and Weiss couldn't find a trace of ill intention in her demeanor.

"I have to go though." Ruby added, "I still have some things to do."

"That's fine." Weiss forced herself not to smile. It wasn't that difficult. The conversation was ending. "It was nice talking to you."

"Yeah, you too. See you around!" Ruby waved and turned away, walking to where Weiss had been.

Weiss Schnee couldn't help but stare as she went. This Ruby Rose was different from what she had initially thought she would be. She had expected her to be colder, to not even speak to her after what she had seen and after what Penny must have told her. Her behavior towards Weiss was strange, but she couldn't feel but want more of it, to bask in that ray of kindness and sunshine and warmth and something so unfamiliar.

Weiss pushed the doubt back as she pulled her Scroll out, checking messages and emails to keep herself from thinking anything more of Ruby Rose.


	5. Roses and Red

Things with Weiss went much more smoothly than she had expected and much less loud and painful as well. After all, she was the one who had talked to her first. Ruby didn't even see her standing there. Again.

 _What is up with her and Johnson Hall anyway?_

She would have to ask her. They were now almost-friends, so maybe Weiss would tell her. If she really was waiting for somebody, then maybe Ruby might help her find whoever it is so she'd stop standing there like a creepy statue, and maybe avoid running into Blake and Sun again. That would save everybody a lot of trouble.

 _It's for the best._

There may or may not be a chance that Weiss was going to be nice to the Faunus, but Ruby didn't doubt the possibility, the miniscule chance that her new friend was going to be okay with her older ones. She and Blake were still friends, after all.

 _Right?_

"Ruby?" a voice cut through her anxiety.

Ruby stared at Ciel Soleil from across the table, cards in hand and blue eyes staring into her expectantly. She looked at Penny sitting to Ruby's left, reading her cards over and over, hoping to find a combo that could help her win the game.

"It's your turn." Ciel said aloud, tapping her cards on the table to draw Ruby's attention to their plastic battlefield, "Draw a card."

"Oh." Ruby did as she was told and groaned when she took a look at the creature card she had drawn. It was a good card, but not exactly useful at the moment. What made it worse was that she was one card over the allowed number on hand. She would have to discard one.

She looked at Penny once more, still rearranging the order of her cards and reading the flavor text for probably the fifth time. Ruby knew she had plenty of cards that could sift through her discard deck. If she were to sacrifice one of her powerful creatures, Penny could put them on the battlefield and have them attack both her and Ciel.

She looked at Ciel, tapping her cards on the table, her blue eyes moving back and forth between her wrist watch and Ruby. Whether Ruby would discard a card or put the creature on the battlefield, Ciel would most likely cast one of her sweeps, destroy all enemy creatures and bolster her own Atlesian fleet.

"What's it going to be?" Ciel asked, the force of her impatience too strong to keep at bay.

Ruby would have to cast an enchantment that could prevent at least half the damage that any of her opponents would cast and summon two token creatures that could block additional damage for her. This could save her from having to discard the creature so Penny could take it and keep Ciel from taking over her kingdom for one more round.

"Playing the defensive, aren't we?" Ciel thought out loud.

"My turn!" Penny almost sang. Without a word, she drew a card and cheered. She quickly rearranged the cards in her hand, gingerly placed a card on the table and smiled. "Destroy all opponent's creatures. They may not be resurrected."

"What?" Both Ruby and Ciel said in unison.

"My Toxic Vermin will attack Ciel," Penny moved the pieces across the board, "my Great Wurm will destroy Ruby's protective enchantment and my remaining Fire Ants will take over her kingdom."

Ruby and Ciel stared, mouths gaping as Penny moved more of the pieces across the board, occupying both their kingdoms with her forces. She didn't even bother removing their pieces out of the game. None of them had anything that could stop her from doing what she was doing: winning.

"You've gotten better at this." Ciel said in disbelief, tipping her own pieces in a show of humble defeat.

Penny just beamed at her two friends. Ruby giggled to herself. If it had been her who conquered the kingdoms in one turn, Ciel would spend the next five minutes trying to come up with a way to trump her move, but Ciel was different with Penny. She was less competitive, less aggressive, much… softer.

Ciel was someone who didn't speak much. She and Penny had been friends long before Ruby had walked into their lives. Initially, she was cold and brusque towards Ruby, always pulling Penny away for something that she had _scheduled_ , but eventually, Ruby won her over with her wide silver eyes and charming smile.

And that was the beginning of their friendship, what Yang and her friends had called The Shorty Brigade. The three of them had never used that term to refer to themselves, but they had silently accepted it as their moniker.

"Is something bothering you, Ruby?" Penny leaned closer, pushing out whatever thoughts Ruby had at the moment, "You seem very distracted today."

"You're usually very invested in this game." Ciel added, setting the pieces back into the box, one by one.

Ruby hummed in thought and blinked fast. Where would she even begin? She could feel a thousand thoughts swirling in her mind, fighting for attention and she wasn't fast enough to even consider each one, much less form words to describe them to her friends.

"The Shorty Brigade." She hilariously thought.

She collected her fallen pieces, not looking at her friends as she played the role of the mysterious player, "Weiss and I talked the other day."

"Oh." Penny said dryly. It was the exact response that Ruby had expected, but she hoped it would have been better. Happier, but that was a long shot.

"Who's Weiss?" Ciel folded her arms over the table, her pieces were already perfectly lined up inside the top half of the box, blue eyes almost uninterested but focused.

"She's my cousin." Penny sighed, folding the game board into the bottom half of the box, "She and I had a falling out and Ruby thinks we should all be friends."

Ruby's eyes grew expectantly, a smile tugging at the corners of her lips as she looked from Penny to Ciel and back again.

"That's not a bad idea." Ciel offered. Ruby suppressed the urge to jump on the table and cheer.

"That's because you haven't personally met Weiss." Penny countered, "Weiss Schnee, heiress and princess of the largest Dust Empire in all of Remnant."

Now it was Ciel's eyes who grew larger, astonishment, recognition and worry painted clear over her baby blues. She was from Atlas too and if her entire night of "researching" about Weiss Schnee yielded any results, it's that the Schnee family was well-known all throughout Atlas. A household name. A powerful, rich household name.

"I didn't know you two were related." Ciel said aloud, much to herself.

"Distant relatives," Penny shrugged, "We're not that close."

 _You used to be._

"So…" Ruby drawled, channeling all her potential energy into the tips of her joined index fingers, "Weiss seemed like she'd be willing to be friends with you again. You did say that you would want to be friends with her too."

Penny said nothing. Thankfully, Ciel did the same.

"Maybe we could get her to hang out with the three of us?" Ruby tested the waters.

It was a simple plan, really. Invite the estranged distant-cousin-slash-friend to spend some time with them, melt her cold, cold heart and hope to change her for the better. It was simple indeed, but simple things aren't always easy. Not when there was muddled history and pained feelings involved.

Ruby had learned long ago that things were much easier said than done.

So she waited for any response from Penny, and probably Ciel, who can calculate thousands of probabilities, best courses of action, when to move forward and when to just let things pass. Her two friends simply stared at her, blue and green eyes regarding her, making their own calculations and assessing the situation that Ruby had brought up.

"That's not a bad idea." Ciel repeated, breaking both silence and eye contact.

Penny must have thought otherwise as she quickly turned to Ciel, who, just as quickly, started reading the blurbs on the box of the board game. The only silence that ever arose between the Shorty Brigade always involved Ciel. Ruby still struggled to communicate with her, but Penny has probably mastered it in a telekinetic level.

"The question is," Ciel cleared her throat, "if Penny even wants to repair this severed relationship with Weiss."

"You said you did." Ruby defended, pointing a finger at Penny to keep her from denying what she had even failed to admit.

"I said fine." Penny sighed, "Weiss can be difficult and I have no idea what the years have done to her. The way she treated Sun and Blake back then, I kind of expected that with her family's racist history. Back in Atlas, we never personally encountered a Faunus when we were younger so I never really knew just how thick the Schnee blood ran in her veins.

"My point is, there were signs that she would turn out this way, signs that I probably ignored. They're not signs anymore, Ruby. Like I told you before, a Schnee is never wrong. Especially when they are."

"But!" Ruby stood and grabbed both of Penny's hands in hers, "She actually wants to talk to you. I didn't check if that didn't involve shouting or poking, but she looked really, really sad. We probably just caught her at a bad time."

Ciel sighed as she shook her head, a smile across her lips. Penny only stared at Ruby in confusion, but there was a smile there as well. Disbelief maybe that she was able to talk to Weiss calmly. Penny would probably flip if she found out that Weiss started the conversation.

"Okay." Penny finally said, pulling her hands from Ruby's grasp, fingers folded together on top of the desk, back upright like a real lady, "I trust you, Ruby."

"Tomorrow then?" Ruby cheered, hands grasping Penny's shoulder and giving her a quick shake, "We can invite her to hang with us at the café."

Ruby couldn't help but smile wider when Penny reluctantly nodded her head. She was just so happy that there was something that she could fix right now. So many things falling apart and this was her chance to put it back together, to not just be the ditzy friend, the helpless little sister, to be useful to someone.

It felt great that she was being useful to Penny, her closest and dearest friend. There were a million things that Ruby would do for her and Ciel and this was one of them. It wasn't a coincidence that Weiss Schnee was standing in front of Johnson Hall that afternoon. It was the hand of fate that had brought them all together.

It wouldn't hurt that Ruby would be the one to speed the process along. Slow burn wasn't really her thing.

The very next day, Ruby decided that she would have to track down Weiss Schnee. It shouldn't be that hard since she knew exactly where she would be and when. Johnson Hall around 4:30PM, standing outside and _waiting_ for someone.

She knew Blake and Sun usually hung out in Johnson Hall around that time and she was just grateful that the three of them hadn't run into each other lately. It could be that her Faunus friends had chosen not to approach Johnson Hall to avoid Weiss. That was a good thing. Not entirely, but still, a good thing.

The clock struck 4PM and Ruby grabbed her bag near her feet, swinging it over her shoulder so haphazardly. Everyone knew well to stay out of her reach when she was in a hurry and she was always in a hurry. The other students were quick to start filing out of the door, but Ruby Rose was quicker, beating them all outside as she ducked under the arm of this really big guy.

She looked up at the sky as she briskly walked to Johnson Hall. She had spent hundreds of afternoons with Yang when they were little kids, watching the clouds and playing in the forest. She had mastered the language of the sky then. The way the clouds had softened to envelope the sinking sun showed her that it would be dark in fifteen minutes.

A single step was much slower than the rest, thinking back at how much she missed home, how much she missed their dad. She swallowed the lump on her throat, remembering that she hadn't had anything to drink in three hours as she thought of her mother and what little memories she had of her. Most of all, she missed Yang.

Yang, the sun that walked on Remnant, bright and cheerful and protective and motherly. That was before. Now, she barely cracked a joke, barely looked at her. Sure, the smile is there, but it wasn't as bright as it had always been. Ruby had spent hundreds of afternoons with her sister that she had mastered the language of her smiles.

These days, it had been foreign, clouded by heartache and secrets, things that Ruby knew and things that she had no idea of.

She pushed back the thought of Yang. She had asked her sister if there was something she could do countless times and all the blonde had ever did was flash her a grin and lied to her face, telling her that she was okay, leaving her to just watch as Yang crumbles away, both of them helpless.

For now, she reveled in the thought that there was something she could do for someone else. Maybe now was not the right time to help Yang, but it was the perfect time to help Penny and, eventually, hopefully, Weiss too.

She had found her way in front of Johnson Hall and there was no trace of Weiss Schnee anywhere. Doubt began swirling in the pit of her stomach. She wasn't sure if Weiss was going to be here. She was banking on the knowledge that they had run into each other here a few times before. Could it be that today was going to be the one day that she wasn't going to stand here waiting for someone?

Passersby stared at her. She gripped her bag tighter and collapsed into herself. They kept coming in droves and Ruby felt like she was in the middle of stampede of gazelles. They weren't going to run into her if she stood still and watched as they rushed away doing their own thing, probably going to go home or wander the streets, go shopping or get dinner, go on dates or probably go drink somewhere she has never even heard of or would probably not want to hear of.

It was only after the last group of girls had passed her by that Ruby let out a breath she didn't know she was holding. Minutes passed on and still there was no Weiss. Doubt started roiling in her stomach once more, dancing and stomping around like it owned the place.

"Ruby?"

Ruby spun on her heels, turning to get a better look at Yang Xiao Long, sister extraordinaire followed by the equally tall and equally extraordinary Amber Fall.

"What are you doing here?" the sisters said in unison then a pair of giggles.

"I'm looking for someone." Ruby cheered.

"I saw Penny leave with Ciel an hour ago." Yang offered, pulling the yellow scarf dangling from her gray jacket. Wordlessly and in one quick motion, the blonde had wrapped the fabric around her younger sister's neck.

"Uh… thanks?" Ruby looked into her sister's eyes, lilac, soft and sad, "I'm waiting for somebody else. I made a new friend."

"Good for you, Ruby." Amber stood in between them and smiled down at her.

Ruby groaned. All throughout her first year, Yang and her friends had made it a point to remind Ruby that she ought to be making friends apart from Yang's circle. All of them, Coco, Ren, Nora, Amber and even Jaune had made thrown her a big party after she had finally introduced Penny and eventually Ciel.

It was mostly just an excuse to have a party, but they were all happy. A million things have changed since that night and about two-thirds of them weren't for the best. Some losses were blessings in disguise, as the saying goes, but she can't help but feel guilty about finding opportunities in somebody else's heartache.

"I won't be coming home for dinner tonight, Yang." Ruby sheepishly said, scratching her neck underneath Yang's scarf, catching a whiff of the apple-scented perfume that clung to her clothes.

"Oh…" Yang drawled as she playfully wrapped her arm around Ruby's shoulder, "well, I'll just leave something in the fridge for you in case you get hungry when you get back."

For a minute, Ruby felt like she had her sister back again, the old Yang, the cheerful, motherly, caring, _happy_ Yang that she hadn't seen in a while. But a minute only lasted sixty brief seconds and after that, her warmth was gone and a shadow had taken its place, cold and distant.

Before Ruby could find the courage to ask Yang if there was something she could do, she heard the familiar sound of quick, clomping footsteps coming closer.

 _Clack. Clack. Clack. Cla—_

Ruby watched as Amber stared at who she thought was Weiss behind her and Yang. Her sister's arm still around her shoulder, the two of them turn to see the heiress herself, her blue eyes absentmindedly watching them and finally, attentively, watching Yang.

"Heya, Weiss." Ruby squeaked, breaking the silence as she pulled herself free from her sister's grasp, "I was waiting for you."

Ruby could hear the knowing grin creeping along her sister's lips. She didn't have to look. She was a master of the language of Yang Xiao Long after all. And after prolonged exposure to Amber, she could hear the other girl rolling her eyes at the two of them.

"Weiss?" Ruby broke the silence, for the nth time that day, shaking a hand in front of the other girl's eyes to catch her attention, "You okay?"

"You were waiting for me?" Weiss seemed to have snapped out of a daze, her eyes barely registering Ruby's presence before they snapped back to Yang.

Ruby sighed, gently pulling Yang, who pulled Amber with her, to stand in front of the stunned girl, "Guys, this is Weiss, the new friend I was talking about. Weiss, this is Yang, my sister, and Amber, her friend."

"Sister?" Weiss muttered. She probably thought that she hadn't said it out loud, but they had all heard her.

Of course, nobody would even think that Ruby Rose and Yang Xiao Long were sisters. They looked nothing like each other. Ruby had black hair and Yang was blonde; Ruby was short while Yang towered over her like… like a tower… the twin towers whenever Amber or anybody else was standing next to her.

"I'm adopted."

And there was the joke. Yang was the only one who thought she was being funny. Ruby glared at her before she could top it off with beds of varying sizes or food with different temperatures.

"She is not." Amber said dryly, casting a sideways glance at Yang who had only buried her face in one hand and her free hand grabbing hold of Ruby's bag.

After about a weak tug or two, Ruby dragged her sister a little ways from Weiss and Amber. Usually, Yang was the one who would do the dragging, but not when she was taken over by a fit of hysterical laughter, half-legitimate and half-forced.

"What?" Ruby huffed, "What did you want to tell me?"

"She's cute." Yang winked at her. Ruby only pouted and furrowed her brows, "I thought you liked so—"

"Shut up!" Ruby's open palm met Yang's arm with a loud smack. Ruby had heard Weiss and Amber gasp in between Yang's guffaws. She always did get a kick from teasing her.

When her sister's laughter died down and the blonde began wiping a tear from the corner of her eye, Ruby had seen one of Yang's best smile. It was soft and warm and filled with the love that had only been hiding.

 _Yang._

"Listen," Yang moved closer, a gentle hand over her sister's shoulder, she whispered as if she were calming Ruby to sleep, "I'm sorry I haven't been myself lately and I haven't been a very good sister to you, but I'm trying, okay?"

"Okay." Ruby whispered back.

This was a conversation that belonged only to them, a conversation that had fueled her courage and willed her to ask, "Are you going to be okay?"

Yang's smile disappeared for a split-second, clouded by the pain and the sadness in her eyes, "What else can I possibly be? Now's just not a good time. Now, your sister is a mess and all I want you to do is to just go and have fun with your friends."

"What about you?"

"I'll try to do the same." Yang laughed.

The two of them smiled at each other for a while. Weiss and Amber didn't exist at that very moment. This was a moment shared between Yang and Ruby, two sisters who had spent hundreds of hours watching clouds pass over the sunshine in their skies, mastering the language that didn't need words

" _Don't worry about me._ " Yang's eyes pleaded.

 _I always will._

"Don't stay out too late, okay?" Yang walked past her and over to Amber's side.

"You too!" Ruby mock-scolded her.

She smiled as she watched her sister go, a heartbroken girl who had spent too many nights staring at the ceiling, tears soaking her pillow, a girl who had now admitted that she wasn't okay, that everything wasn't okay, a girl who now wants to be okay.

 _Time heals._

Ruby apologetically turned to Weiss, ready to explain Yang's strange, almost-cruel joke, but she had lost her words the moment she saw that Weiss had been staring at her the entire time, a solemn expression on her face.

"Weiss?" Ruby felt heat rising to her throat, making her feel dizzy, "Are you okay?"

"Yes." Weiss quickly turned away, eyes towards the empty doorway of Johnson Hall.

"So," Ruby rubbed the back of her neck, feeling the dampness underneath the yellow scarf, "are you ready to hang with me and Penny and Ciel?"

"Ciel?"

Ruby watched as Weiss was just about to look at her, a confused expression on her face before her eyes shot back to the now not-empty doorway. Ruby's heart dropped the moment she had heard the voice of Sun Wukong— a Faunus, getting louder and louder.

 _Oh no._

This was going to get ugly. Ruby turned just in time to see his blond hair bouncing about, tail swishing back and forth and beefy arms emphasizing his whatever argument he was having with Scarlet and Neptune.

"Neptune." Ruby had heard Weiss say under whatever breath was left in her.

 _How does she know him?_

Ruby marveled at the way Weiss stared at the three boys talking, oblivious to their presence. A part of Ruby was amazed that her new friend hadn't even noticed Sun the way she did when they first met, but what really astounded her was how Weiss seemed to be holding her breath, her eyes widening and her mouth falling open.

She had seen this look before. Weiss had a softer version of that expression when Yang was around earlier. Yang had made that face around Blake when they were going out; and Jaune before Pyrrha left; and Ciel; and Sage; and even the usually intense Coco Adel stared, slack jawed at Velvet if she thought nobody was looking.

Ruby remembered Blake telling her that it felt like both space and time were collapsing into a puddle of existence, a moment where the past, the present and the future converged, a split-second that stretched through a million possibilities and probabilities. All wrestling in the soul and imploding in the mind.

"Blake didn't need to wash my jack—" Neptune trailed off.

"Nep?" Sun asked.

Ruby wrenched her silver eyes away from the soul-wrestling and mind-imploding happening in Weiss, turning to look at the three boys that looked at them with equal confusion. Sun was a little nervous, taking a step back, arm stretched out to reach for Neptune at any given moment. Scarlet had casually placed a hand over Neptune's shoulder. Neptune, himself, was staring at Weiss the same way that she was staring at him. It would seem that the laws of physics were being challenged in his mind.

"That's the girl." Sun whispered out loud to Scarlet behind Neptune, a finger pointing to Weiss who ignored him, ignored all of them. Except Neptune.

"Red." Ruby heard her whisper again.

Ruby looked at Neptune, electric blue hair that complemented the orange tint of the goggles that was eternally on top of his head. White shirt and black tie underneath his red jacket. The red that Weiss must be referring too. Ruby couldn't help but think of a bull for a quick second and the myth that they didn't like the color red.

"Hi." A toothy grin crept over Neptune's lips, flashing his white set of teeth.

"Hi." Weiss sighed, her features softening and Ruby could see the biggest smile forming at her lips.

 _What the fuck?_

Ruby fought the urge to laugh at how strange and awkward this all was for everyone else but Weiss and Neptune. Sun and Scarlet seemed to be extremely uncomfortable as well, perplexed gazes moving between the girl in white and their friend.

"You're Weiss Schnee." Neptune said coolly, straightening his jacket and puffing out his chest.

"Yes, I am. And you are?" Weiss lied.

 _What the fuck?_

Just five seconds ago, Ruby had heard her say Neptune's name and now she was fishing for it, pretending that she has no idea who he was. Maybe that's how the world worked for Weiss. She wouldn't know. It was all funny to her and as much as she would like to rush this weird encounter, she didn't want to pull Weiss out of something that she probably was enjoying.

"Neptune." He said, taking a step forward and holding a hand out for her, "Vasilias."

"A pleasure to meet you." Weiss' blue eyes sparkled as she gently placed her hand over his.

Ruby, Sun and Scarlet contorted their faces at the same time that Neptune pressed his lips over Weiss' knuckle. It was one thing to ignore your friends for some boy or girl, but openly flirting in front of them after having just met was… odd.

"Hi, Ruby." Scarlet waved at the small girl, trying to at least remind these two that the world existed outside of themselves.

"Hi, Scarlet." Ruby waved back then acknowledged the other two boys, "Hi, Sun, Neptune."

"Hey, Ruby." Sun nervously said, taking another half-step backwards.

"Ruby!" Neptune finally looked at her, hand still holding Weiss', "Where's your sister?"

Weiss glared at Ruby. If she was going to keep doing that, Ruby was bound to get used to that icy look in the next few days. If there would even be any next few days. Right now, Ruby just wanted to run away and laugh her head off.

"You just missed her." Ruby giggled, pushing all force into it instead of making a break for it, "She's out with Amber."

"Cool, cool." Neptune absentmindedly said, his gaze returning to Weiss, who quickly put on a charming smile for him.

"How's she doing?" Sun stepped around Neptune, unspoken apologies in his tone and the way his shoulders slightly fell.

"She's…"

 _Don't worry about me._

"She's doing okay." Ruby sighed, "How's Blake?"

"Back to her old self." Sun shrugged, "Well, a lot meaner than before, but she's back to keeping to herself."

Ruby bit her lip. On one hand, she was kind of glad that Blake was back to her old self, but on the other, she felt bad that that old self meant she would retreat into her room and snap at other people whenever she was out of her "cave".

She liked Blake. She was like the sister she never had, not that Ruby was ungrateful for Yang, but it didn't hurt to have another sister. She and Blake got along very well, talking about books and gaining unlimited access to each other's' literary collection. Sometimes, Ruby preferred talking to Blake than Yang about certain things, especially when she just wanted direct answers without the usual teasing that followed if she would open up to Yang.

After a string of terrible dating choices, Ruby was ecstatic that Yang was finally with somebody who wasn't secretly an awful person. She had watched them fall in love, cheering in the sidelines when they both finally confessed their feelings. Sort of. Unfortunately, she watched them fall apart.

 _Why? What happened? How did it end up this way?_

"You're that Faunus from the other day." Weiss declared, pulling Ruby out of the thoughts of her sister's failed relationship and into the mess that was waiting for her.

"These are my good friends, Sun and Scarlet." Neptune quickly added, drawing Weiss' attention back to him, unconsciously quelling whatever argument that would arise.

"Uh… yeah." Sun weakly said.

"Heeeeey!" Scarlet cheered, sticking a hip out as he stroked one of his earrings.

Weiss paid them no mind. All of her attention was focused on Neptune's smile alone, her mind abuzz with a thousand thoughts and practically nothing else but the boy standing in front of her. But time was running short and the rest of the Shorty Brigade was waiting for them to show up. If there was one thing Ciel Soleil was not a big fan of, it was waiting.

"So, Weiss?" Ruby ventured, wiggling a finger in place of her hand, "Are we still up for hanging out with Penny?"

"Maybe we could get coffee some other time." Neptune said to Weiss and Weiss alone.

Ruby was completely ignored, but she sighed at the idea that all five of them wouldn't have to stand around this awkward scene. No, only the three of them felt that this was awkward.

"Dinner would be better." Weiss offered after a dignified huff, "Friday night?"

"Sounds perfect," Neptune whispered, "snow angel."

Sun's eyes widened in astonishment, Scarlet had this pained look on his face and Ruby, she turned her head, hid her silent laughter behind her little palm, half-regretting being here and half-amused that she had been here to witness just how weird Neptune can get.

If Weiss had shown a sign of unease, Ruby would have quickly pulled the girl out to safety. Oh, but Ruby knew she was enjoying this. Ruby knew she wanted this. She was expecting it? Maybe Weiss was the kind of girl who got a lot of attention from boys and has mastered the language of dating from it.

"So are we still going," Scarlet coughed, "or do we have to stand here and watch?"

Neptune pressed a kiss over Weiss' knuckle once more, bowing a little bit, his free hand behind his back. The scene reminded Ruby so much of those fairy tale pictures books about knights and princesses. Weiss was technically a princess, but she never once imagined Neptune being a knight.

With great effort, Neptune gently pulled his hand away, his eyes lingering on Weiss'. Sun and Scarlet almost dragged him away from the two girls, both of them saying their goodbyes to Ruby and Weiss. It was only then that Neptune had bothered to bid his own goodbye to Ruby, turning back to Weiss every five steps or so.

"Neptune." Ruby caught Weiss' whisper and watched as the girl clasped her hands and held it against her chest, as if she were praying.

She said nothing for a while, opting to give Weiss a minute to compose herself. She had never thought Weiss would be very forward and flirt with a guy in front of people she barely knew. Or maybe this was just Ruby being weird about it. She had seen this sort of thing happen with Yang, but that was Yang and seemed so natural to her and maybe she had gotten used to it.

Neptune was a nice guy. He was caring and thoughtful and sweet without being too sweet towards Ruby. If she were ever interested, Neptune would probably be the perfect guy.

"So…" Ruby dug her toe into the ground, eyes refusing to look at Weiss, "Penny and Ciel today?"

Weiss stared at her as if in shock, disbelief and a tinge of embarrassment creeping to her pale ears. Slowly, she nodded her head, blue eyes cast to the space in between their feet. Ruby thought it was adorable.

She had this image of Weiss in her head, not as if she would admit it to anybody, that the girl was not the least bit interested in relationships or boys, but seeing her losing a bit of the self-control that she was so good at, it warmed Ruby's heart.

Weiss Schnee, ice princess, human and on the brink of falling in love.

Ruby swallowed, hoping to ease the sudden dryness in her throat and to feel anything other than the headache hammering against her skull, the minor compression happening against her chest. She smiled at Weiss and signaled for the exit. The two of them silently moved to where Ruby had pointed, not much of a plan, but it was a start.

"How do you know Neptune?" Ruby carefully asked, knowing how fragile this new friendship with Weiss was. She wondered if Weiss was going to be comfortable walking in her heels. Downtown Vale was a little bit far away.

Weiss didn't respond and Ruby heard the loud thumping of her heart amplifying the headache that lingered in her skull. The clicking of her heels helped, sort of, creating a rhythm that Ruby could focus on, forcing her mind to wonder if she struggled to walk on uneven surfaces.

"Do you believe in destiny?" Weiss said softly.

Ruby regarded her for a moment, a single eye peeked beyond the dyed tip of her hair, finding Weiss stoic expression fixed on her. That seriousness completely vanished as soon as both girls processed her question. Ruby was confused at the randomness of her words and Weiss looked as if she had regretted posing said question in the first place.

Destiny. A word that she had heard Yang say when they were little girls, comfortably lying underneath heavy blankets in front of the fireplace, watching Yang read a tattered book on her lap. Ruby had never asked what it truly meant. She had come to understand it after a while. Destiny. Something that was meant to be for someone. Something that hundreds of authors seemed to be holding in high regard.

It could only be true.

"I don't know." Ruby hummed. She had learned that not knowing was a good enough answer sometimes because it was the truth. She had never really thought about it until now. She had merely accepted it when she was growing up. But Weiss had asked her in a way that made her feel as if the other girl was being sincere.

She didn't want to lie, but she wanted to know more.

"Maybe." Ruby added with a soft chuckle, dissipating what tension that hung in the air between them.

"I do." Weiss said under her breath.

What was that in her eyes? Sadness? Disappointment? Ruby could feel her heart fluttering in her chest. Was Weiss starting to care about her in such a short amount of time? Did her opinion really matter that such a shady answer broke her heart?

Or was it something else? A belief that only she knew, that only she was holding on to?

 _Destiny._

The rest of their walk was spent in silence. It wasn't uncomfortable, not to Ruby. It was a good quiet. The same kind of quiet after Yang had fallen asleep and Ruby Rose was left to stare at the ceiling, waiting to fall asleep.

 _What exactly am I doing here?_

Ruby cast a quick look at Weiss. She reminded herself that she was doing this for Penny, who didn't really show a lot of interest in the restoration of their strange relationship. Or maybe the Shorty Brigade started to feel as if Ruby was the odd one out. Maybe, they needed a fourth member.

Weiss wasn't fooling anybody in those heels.

"Ms. Schnee," Ruby hadn't realized that the two of them were walking towards a stout, bald man with what looked like a soft mustache, "and who might this be?"

He looked at Ruby with a big smile on his face, twinkling eyes moving between her and Weiss. Ruby had never used the word "short" on any other person aside from herself, Penny and Ciel, but this man was shorter than herself. Growing up must have been hard for him.

"Klein, this is Ruby Rose." Weiss waved her hand dismissively, but there was a softness in her tone, "She's friends with Penny, you remember her, right?"

"Yes, Ms. Polendina used to visit the manor when you were younger." Klein beamed at them, a myriad of emotions rushing through his mind.

"The three of us—"

"Four." Ruby interjected, not leaving Ciel out of the headcount.

" **Four** of us will be spending an hour or two together in…" Weiss looked to Ruby for an answer.

"Café Polendina," Ruby breathed the words out in quick succession, "in downtown Vale."

Klein was running out of face for his smile. He stood to his full height and puffed out his chest. He looked ecstatic and proud. Weiss had only averted his gaze, looking at the car door and waiting for him to let them both inside.

The smile never faded from Klein's face when he had opened the doors for them. It lingered after he had fastened his own seatbelt, checked if his passengers were secure in the backseat, after they had driven out of Beacon University.

Ruby giggled to herself. Whoever Klein was, he was very happy about the idea of Weiss Schnee, ice princess, heiress, spending an hour or two with **four** other girls. Friends. Ruby was happy and at the same time sad.

Did Weiss not have many friends?


End file.
